Interaction Architect

I solve challenging human computer interaction issues for my clients.

I solve challenging interaction design issues for my clients, working to improve ROI and reduce risk on their design investments. As a hands-on practitioner well-versed in Agile development, I take a systems approach and have a passion for designing easy-to-use products.

My client work focuses on enterprise product design - including SaaS, Enterprise IT, security, mobile, financial services and device management. I also have deep experience with mobile platform system design for enabling UX.

I'm an inventor on over a dozen software patents related to software user experiences. In 2002, I authored the first book linking business strategy to online user experience, published by McGraw-Hill in New York. I earned a MS from the MIT Media Laboratory in Cambridge, MA where my research focused on developing algorithms to define gesture languages. Prior to my research at the Media Lab I earned a BS in Computer Science from Tufts University in Medford, MA.

I work with all of kinds of clients worldwide, from startups to established organizations. I work at a rapid pace and with urgency, collaborating closely with product teams to clarify requirements, envision solutions and quickly get to prototypes. A startup client recently wrote to me about my UI/UX consulting services: "Your work defines the category and allows us to accelerate at a pace that otherwise would simply not be possible."

Please email me at karen[at]humanlogic[dot]com to discuss your project needs. I look forward to hearing about your project and how I can help.

All9s

All9s was a SaaS solution designed as a turn-key remote backup and replication solution for mission-critical data hosted in the cloud.

Working with the CEO/founder (with whom I had worked at VMware), we used Agile development methods to define use cases and requirements that enabled the delivery of a UX design specification for MVP software development.

All9s' solution seamlessly integrated into cloud environments, allowing control over data and freedom to move data between cloud providers at the click of a button. Unlike cloud providers like AWS and Rackspace (who supply infrastructure to host data), All9s had a unique technology solution to deliver automated solutions to securely replicate, migrate and recover data across all cloud providers at a fraction of the cost of manual or IT-consultant solutions.

My deliverables included the UX design for an Admin experience enabling a user to manage data recovery processes. I delivered detailed wireframes and flows including notification of an outage from a mobile device.

My design process begins by understanding the business problem to be solved. From there I work to understand the business context and the needs of the user population, and the use cases. For All9s, I worked with the CEO/founder to understand the business requirements, validating them in cases that have impact on the user experience. Then I worked to understand the user models, in All9s case, administrators of mid-sized enterprises. In some cases I conduct user interviews or surveys to validate assumptions.

After validating requirements and understanding the user models, I work through the prioritized flows - for All9s the team worked towards a MVP (minimum viable product) design. I use flow design to help solidify the narrative of the user experience, and I consider the constraints (both technical and scheduling) - as well as risk factors - in all of my designs. The flow designs for All9s allowed us to define a state model for the platform, some of which would impact the user experience and be exposed to the user.

After the flows are understood I begin work on the wireframes. Wireframing helps define the overall system layout and the interactions between screens, as well as the components to enable the interaction model. In the case of All9s, we assumed a modern web application UI framework (Bootstrap) and standard UI components. For each of the flows, I designed wireframes and the admin’s interactions to initiate and complete tasks.

All9s was an early stage venture moving very rapidly to build their first product, and defining the MVP features and architectural attributes of the platform were the primary focus. Visual design considerations and branding were not defined at that time and as such we left the visual design very simple, using the default theming construct of the UI framework. Engineering was able to utilize the flows and wireframes I produced to complete implementation of the V1 of the All9s product.

VMware Switch

Enterprise workspace on an Android mobile device, operating in isolation from an employee's personal data and applications. With one tap, enterprise employees can switch between their personal Android phone and their secure corporate workspace.

As a UX consultant to VMware in 2011-2012, I served as the UX Design lead for VMware Horizon Mobile, BYOD mobile virtualization platform for Android released in 2012.
I designed the overall interaction model and Welcome Experience for the platform and several Android clients for Email and Data storage.

Working closely with product management, engineering and product marketing team members, I used Agile development methods to capture UX requirements and deliver a complete set of UX design specifications for the platform's mobile clients. I participated in Agile sprints with the engineering team and tracked my deliverables as user stories using Jira.

My deliverables included detailed wireframes and interaction specifications, as well as supervision of visual design asset creation done by a graphic designer with whom I collaborated. I also performed usability tests on the web-based administrative tool for IT managers to manage workspace deployments to enterprise employees' personal devices. Many of my UX design recommendations based on user tests were considered by the team and then scheduled into subsequent sprints.

Thermodata Loggistix

UX design for SaaS-based IoT device temperature monitoring solutions for the life sciences and food industries.

Thermodata Corporation provides highly accurate temperature monitoring solutions to the life sciences and food industries, managing the temperature of their perishable products to ensure quality and viability. Thermodata’s cloud based system provides an easy to use and readily accessible means to analyze and share the substantial amount of data collected by networked sensors and loggers.

Working closely with the Thermodata founders, I participated in product planning, feature definition and workflow design for a MVP definition of Loggistix, Thermodata’s cloud based service that collects readings from monitoring devices worldwide. Data from devices is stored in a secure repository and accessible by authorized users via the Web, for analysis, reporting and sharing. The goals for the product included the design of a highly usable “self-service” user experience that would not require special training or a lengthy onboarding process. I began working with the Thermodata executive and development teams on persona design and proceeded to feature definition and prioritization for the Loggistix Console using Agile development methods.

Under a tight deadline to validate the requirements for the MVP version of the Loggistix user experience, I organized and led a half day brainstorming workshop with product and development teams where we defined seven user personas of the overall platform system and the workflows that exist between the core personas as shown in the diagram below.

Workflows included defining the task flows for each persona for Missions, which are time-based transportation events that require tracking across geographic regions worldwide with specific shipping and delivery dates. We also specified alert notification schemes so that users of the system could be notified in real-time about events, for example in the case of a failure to maintain SLA refrigeration. This notification allows the recipient to understand if there has been a compromise in delivery quality for the Mission’s shipment and to act accordingly.

Based on the captured requirements and user stories from the MVP brainstorming workshop, I produced a set of draft flows and wireframes reflecting the requirements. Working with the team, we translated and refined the MVP requirements into flows and wireframes for the development team to analyze and use for building the software. The wireframes reflected requirements for a real-time console dashboard with Mission data and sensor data details available both in summary views and as drilldown screens. The Dashboard also enabled real-time alerting for error conditions for Missions. The wireframes helped to define the proposed data model and also reflect the MVP requirements in a format in which the entire team could readily analyze and provide feedback. An example of a wireframe for the Dashboard is shown below.

The highly collaborative approach we took for this project enabled the Executive team to validate product requirements and the experience for customers before building in software, thereby reducing delivery risk. This project was performed under a tight budget, and I delivered a cost-effective solution to the Thermodata Executive team. Our mockups enabled the representation of features and a proposed data model in a shareable format that made it easy for engineering to understand and plan for implementation.
In the next year, Thermodata released a beta version of Loggistix, the Thermodata cloud software as a service (SaaS) platform guided by the console designs from the planning sessions. Screenshots of the released product are shown below.

The new dashboard design helped to streamline selling of the product and improved adoption of the trial experience for the Loggistix platform, propelling the sales of calibration service for Thermodata. For users of the SaaS platform, the self-service experience enables a more transparent view into data aggregated from sensors across many geographic locations and more efficient analysis on the data. The new easy-to-use SaaS product platform has enabled more efficient sales and price elasticity of Thermodata’s calibration service as a key component of an integrated Cloud services offering.

For more information on how we can help with designing and improving your digital products please email karen [at] humanlogic [dot] com or visit www.humanlogic.com.

Reality Analysis by Cogito Corporation

A secure and scalable mobile sensing platform that gathers honest data from mobile phones and analyzes the data for patterns of psychological distress

I worked with the CTO and founders to design the user experience for a privacy-assured, secure and scalable mobile sensing platform. The platform gathers honest data from mobile phones and analyzes that data for patterns of psychological distress, storing the data securely, allowing the user to see and share feedback on their overall mental health status.

The smartphone application passively collects data on activity, social interaction, sleep patterns and mood and engages the user in a simple experience designed to reduce stress. Working collaboratively with the founding team, I designed features and delivered wireframes for Android ICS, as well as the visual assets used in the UX. I also designed a notification system appropriate to user population.

The platform has been deployed as part of a major Boston-area clinical trial that looks at behavior from individuals experiencing PTSD and depression and generates automatic symptom assessment models. More information can be found here.

Pingup

A technology platform that lets people book local service appointments directly from popular websites or mobile apps.

As a product design consultant to Pingup (Getabl, Inc.), I worked with the CTO and Creative Director on mobile product planning, user requirements, Agile user stories and wireframes/flows for a MVP Android product. This was the first Android application for Pingup.

The application allowed users to search for and chat with businesses in order to book appointment, call a taxi or arrange for other services. No phone call required, just a text message. The application was launched in the Google Play store in 2013.

Working closely with the Product Management and Engineering teams, I prepared and executed Usability Tests at various locations in Boston (see image below). My findings were delivered to the development team as actionable remediation recommendations.

My usability testing and analysis resulted in approximately 65% of my recommendations being implemented as updates to the product.

LightRules by Digital Lumens

LightRules is a web appliance for managing a wireless network of intelligent LED lights that leverage innovative sensors to maximize energy efficiency, allowing lighting to be treated as a managed resource through an easy-to-use web interface. Facility managers can control operating hours and energy use, make changes to sensor settings on lights and run daily reports.

Working with the founders, product management, engineering and marketing team members, I used Agile development methods to capture UX requirements and deliver a complete UX design specification for software development.

My deliverables included detailed wireframes and interaction specifications, and I worked directly with the front end engineer to ensure a smooth transition through software development.

As part of the UX design for Light Rules, I designed custom UI components to allow ease of use for key tasks such as scheduling, configuration, reporting and specifying rules for time-based lighting behavior.

Imprivata Cortext

A secure communication platform for healthcare that enables hospitals to replace pagers and improve care coordination inside and outside the hospital.

I worked as a design consultant in Product Management on new feature design and UX design specifications for the Availability Status and Broadcast features. These were new features for the platform and I worked closely with the product management and engineering teams to refine the requirements and produce wireframes and flows that represented potential design solutions. I participated in sprints and sprint planning, using Rally to track and review user stories.

The Availability Status feature on native mobile platforms (iOS 6 & 7, and Android) allows users to set their availability status on the system to notify other users of the likelihood of response, as a complement to the concept of network presence. My work included a systems level approach to modeling of the sender and receiver user experiences during distinct availability states, the transitions between states, and the appropriate system responses. This approach and the design artifacts that I produced allowed the team to understand the complex interactions and state model for the user experience.

The Broadcast feature allows administrators to quickly send a secure message to all users for high-urgency reasons. I worked on the design of the flows and UX for both administrator and recipient for broadcast scenarios. Later I worked with PM to complete a design specification for engineering to build both of these features. Imprivata extended my contract three times during this engagement.

UniqStmp

UniqStmp uses a unique gesture language for creating "on-the-go" customized stamps for mobile devices that can be sent via Twitter, text messaging or email.

I used Agile development methods to define the MVP product features and UX requirements and to deliver a complete product design specification. I worked with software engineer to define a gesture language and custom UI component for on-the-go creative communication to enable a quick and easy UX for both the sender and recipient. I also created all of the visual assets for the application, and through conversations with users who write to me am planning the next release of content to allow custom stampmaking on mobile devices.

SD Insight

Mobile app to quickly determine memory storage card authenticity

SD Insight is an Android application that quickly confirms SD card authenticity. SD Insight displays information about the storage card including manufacturer name, date of manufacture, and the product name and serial number. If the SD card is a counterfeit, a notification will display this information on the main application screen under the “Manufacturer” label.

More than 700,000 users have downloaded the app and over 6,200 users have reviewed the app with an average rating of 4.4 stars

I used Agile development methods to define and prioritize the product features and UX requirements and delivered a complete UX design specification for Android. My deliverables to engineering included task flows, wireframes and interaction specifications as well as all visual assets.

Interaction Design

I have deep expertise in the UI/UX discipline of Interaction Design. I work on defining new interaction models or improving existing ones, across a variety of web and device platforms.

I take a systems approach to design, and consider the holistic experience of the user. In the context of agile development, I refine and validate requirements and help the team get to a prototype using the practices shown in the diagram below.

Wireframing

To deliver wireframes, I work through the use cases, user stories and flows while considering the constraints of the application framework.

I consider wireframes to be important artifacts for validating requirements from PM and for delivering requirements to engineering. Wireframes define the narrative of the experience in a format consumable by all stakeholders, helping the entire team understand what is required to deliver a good user experience that produces business value.

In my opinion, wireframes also provide a means to clarify and propose updates to the data model, and can help surface areas of risk early in the development process.

Contact me

Please email me at karen[at]humanlogic[dot]com to discuss your project needs and to see more portfolio details.